MinkFlamingos

Apr 1 The Weekly Peanut, Issue 111

After the drama of recent weeks, I will never again take a week like the one we just had for granted. I know it may be fleeting, and she could be a demon again any moment, but this week was just... great.

First, D (jinx jinx jinx) may FINALLY be making strides in potty training. She had several dry days in a row at school (in other words, I don't have a plastic baggy full of soiled bottoms in her backpack at the end of the day). Even more telling? D has finally started to tell us when she needs to go to the bathroom (before it was a matter of watching the clock and forcing her into the bathroom). I was concerned since we had big plans over the weekend that we might undo all this progress, but I promised her teacher we'd do our best to keep it going.

Saturday morning we took the drive over to Grandpa Bobo's to spend some time with family. We opted for pull ups with undies over them (a two hour car ride? I'm a potty realist). As soon as we arrived, D went straight for the bathroom. YES.

We spent the morning playing with family, meeting a pony, and eating with almost no fight. D chowed down with almost no encouraging.

We left in the early afternoon so we would have time to prepare for our bittersweet evening plans: hosting our friends, the Widricks, for one last dinner before their move to St. Pete. Sure, it's not far, but it's also not around the corner anymore.

D showed Audrey her TsumTsums, then she showed off her moves (to Taylor Swift, much to Ian's chagrin). We finally bid (overly?) enthusiastic farewell to our friends.

D's early morning wake up call was welcome (for once) Sunday morning, so we could get out the door and get down to Magic Kingdom before we were inevitably driven out by the hefty spring break crowds.

We wanted to knock out a couple of rides before lines filled up, so we did Winnie the Pooh and Haunted Mansion (I not scared anymore! So proud of my brave peanut!). We took a quick (successful!) potty break, outfit change, and it was time to visit Princess Tiana with a special gift to commemorate the almost year (1) since the first time we visited.

Yes, D's Tiana dress finally fits! It was so sweet to watch the two of them look over the pictures together. Tiana knows my kid, though, and before D could get stir crazy, "Are you ready to twirl, Daphne?" Duh...

Followed by dancing...

This triggered D's typical "run around Tiana in circles" excitement. To be honest, I'm surprised we haven't had this happen before. Wet stone + slick shoes + toddler exuberance = crash and burn. Most of the time my kid falling is nothing, but this time I saw that on the way down she was going to go face first into the corner of one of those pillars. My kid may be prone to dramatics, but not when it comes to accidents. She's usually the first one to pop up and say "I OKAY I OKAY!!" I knew this would not be one of those times. She popped up relatively quickly, but her hand went to her face right away and the sobs started. Ian and I shook our heads and chuckled before remembering this was one of those "people are judging you as parents" moments. Sorry, we just don't have it in us to be one of those parents that embraces histrionics and "OH MY POOR BABY!"s. I scooped her up and crooned in her ear, "Wow kiddo, that was a serious bump! You're gonna be ok." I noticed somebody else wasn't taking D's fall very well either: Tiana. Aww, princess. Now I wanted to comfort both of them. I let Tiana scoop D up for some comforting hugs. Tiana made us promise to keep her updated and to come back later for another shot at some hugs.

Booboo hugs

D was still screaming into my shoulder when the blueberry jumped in; D isn't much for hysterics at the parks, so this was my first chance to see their "No Crying Kids" policy in action. I watched with growing mirth as, sticker by sticker, my kid's screams gradually dissolved into whimpers. Only took about 10 stickers. "Mommy. Ouchie." No kidding, kiddo. How about some ice? Nod. Whimper. The blueberry pointed us to first aid and off we went. I emerged moments later with an ice pack. D applied it to her face, looked up at me with big eyes and whispered, "Mommy... ice cream." It was not a question. Wow, way to lay on the guilt. Oh fine. Let's get some ice cream.

Booboo Kisses (and a dent in her eyebrow)

By the time she'd had 3 bites of ice cream you'd have never known by her behavior that anything had happened. That giant dent on her eyebrow, however, wasn't going anywhere. "Mommy I feel better." Good. Let's go do Enchanted Tales.

D is completely at home at ET now. She goes straight for the front of the bench and leads the charge into the wardrobe room for casting without looking back for us once. D got to be the salt shaker this time (and would only shake it if she was holding it upside down, TYVM). We were thrilled that one of our InstaFriends, Shaina, was an attendant in the library. D got to play/ dance with Shaina while waiting her turn for Belle. Honestly, D was enjoying Shaina so much she didn't seem all that interested in Belle by comparison :P.

But D did hug Belle. And twirl with her. And have a great time.

It was time for a mac and cheese break after all that twirling. I got a message from my friend, Melanie, that there would be a special early Festival of Fantasy Parade that day. Sweet! We usually have to leave before the typical 3pm start time. We staked out a nice spot in Frontierland with some shade and settled in. D looked up at me, "Mommy, I go poo?" Ack! I grabbed her hand and started hauling to Liberty Tree Tavern, hollering over my shoulder at Ian to hold down the fort. We charged up the stairs and were stopped in our tracks by A LINE. Ughhh. A flawless potty weekend, even at WDW, and we were going to be stymied by a bathroom line. I picked D up, coached her, told her to cross her legs, scrunch up her face, hold it a few more minutes, we could make it. Finally a stall opened up, I fully expected to find we were too late, but no! SHE HELD IT! Eureka!!! I will admit to fawning and gushing over the brilliance of my child. We emerged from the stall, "Mommy, I get THREE Chah-cah-lits!" (2 for #2, 1 for #1). Darn right, kid. I grabbed my baggy of chocolate chips I now carry everywhere and doled out her prize. "Genius parenting right there," I heard behind me. Honestly, who are all these judgy parents? Sure, my kid has a few tiny chocolate chips over the course of the day, but it's WORKING! I put on my smiley face and turned to face the lady behind me, "Ah, well, ya know *shrug* nothing else was working, so..." she flashed me a huge grin, "No, seriously, that's genius. I'm totally stealing that idea." Oh... my bad. Steal away, and good luck, Mama!! We continued our potty celebration all the way back to daddy and enjoyed the parade. We rode Pirates with FastPass, but D was starting to get a little nuts, so we figured we could make our way to the exit. I wanted to stop by the glen on the way out just to wave at Tiana and let her know that D was ok. We ran into Mellie and she waited with us. Tiana walked by us but made a point to stop and hug D and check on the booboo. It looked worse than it was, I swear.

D heard the fireworks from the Dream Along show so she insisted we stop off and watch it. Ian was pretty ready to vamoose after that, but I insisted we take the "scenic" route to main street so we could enjoy the recently reopened and renovated west hub area. Suddenly I noticed a blueberry in front of us. Blueberry = character meeting. Here? In the new hub?? A couple of giant posies were meeting a very tiny group of people in the new grassy hub. "Are those... the posies from Alice in Wonderland?" I mumbled to myself. The blueberry heard me, "That's EXACTLY who they are." It was my turn to give my husband puppy dog eyes. Rare character meetings??? We always miss these! There might have been some lower lip pouting. "D, would you like to meet the flowers?" D nodded. Daddy relented. YESSSSSS!!!

D was quite taken with the flowers. Especially their face jewels. She kept petting them and "Oooooooooh"ing. The crowd was definitely filling up so we made our way to the exit. When D realized we were leaving she burst into tears. This is the first time D has cried just because we were leaving Disney! I promised her we'd be back soon (duh, next Saturday we're taking Grandpa Marc to Animal Kingdom).

D has greeted me almost every afternoon at daycare by saying "Mommy, I eat vegibulls?" We are gradually working our way to it being less and less of a fight about it, too. Would I prefer she eat what we're eating? Of course, but it's progress at least. Compromise. I can deal with it. See you next week!